Chapter Text
When Matt walks into his dorm room for the first time and meets his new roommate, he is hit in the face with a confusing array of smells. There’s coffee and sugar and milk that Foggy consumed recently. There’s the oil and salt from the empty potato chip bag in the trash. There’s a pleasant undercurrent of slightly sweaty boy, an intriguing musk that wakes up some part of his brain he can’t identify. But it’s all overpowered by a strong, funky odor that reminds Matt of garlic, of skunks, things he tries not to get too near to. He can’t place it, but he’s drowning in it.
Matt makes friendly small-talk with the man he’s going to be living with for at least a year, controlling himself so he doesn’t react to the smell as he tries to figure out what it is. He finally realizes it’s marijuana. Foggy must be a pretty habitual smoker: his hair, his clothes, his skin all ooze the scent. As they joke around, Matt traces ground-zero of the smell to Foggy’s desk drawer; that must be where he keeps his stash.
He gladly agrees to go out to Foggy’s favorite coffee place, less interested in the hot chicks Foggy promises so much as the prospect of fresh air.
Later that night in their room, Foggy takes his stash out of the drawer, making the scent stronger. He hears the dried chunks of plant material rub against each other in the ziplock bag and can sense the sticky texture of them by the sound and the released stench.
“You smoke?” Foggy asks, with a grin. “I’ll share.” God, he already trusts me not to narc on him? Matt thinks. He hears Foggy’s heart speed up a little, but more in line with looking forward to something nice than any kind of wariness or trepidation.
Matt shakes his head, trying to smile. “No, but thanks for offering,” he says.
“You don’t mind if I do, though, do you?” Matt can smell and hear that Foggy has taken a lump of the stuff out of the bag. He starts breaking it up on the surface of his desk, and the smell is overpowering to Matt. He tries not to choke.
“Um, I don’t mind, really, but – I think I’ll go for a little walk,” Matt says, shrugging his hoodie back on and picking up his stick. “I just don’t want to get the smell on my clothes.”
“Oh, don’t worry, dude, I blow the smoke out the window, it doesn’t stink up anything too bad,” says Foggy, while his heart slows and then speeds up again. Matt hears the disappointment in his voice, and it makes Matt a little sad. He really wants to make friends with Foggy; he’s enjoyed their time together so far – strangely, quite a lot. But Matt thinks he might retch if Foggy lights that stuff up.
“I’m just going to get some fresh air – I’ll be back later,” Matt says, smiling reassuringly.
“Well, okay, suit yourself – enjoy your walk!” Foggy calls after him. “Bring back some fresh air for me, too, okay?”
Matt chuckles and waves, and gets the hell out of their dorm room. He stays away for an hour, and the smell is still almost unbearable when he gets back.
He’s going to have to do something about this.